This December, Hulu recently added a terrific slate of new movies, including a good amount of holiday fare that is sure to get you in the Christmas spirit.
Watch With Us wants to highlight one movie that we think is particularly worth your time — Joe Dante’s 1984 horror-comedy Gremlins.
While not billed as a Christmas movie, Gremlins takes place during the season and features snow, string lights, Christmas trees and evil gremlins caroling.
Gremlins is as much of a Christmas film as It’s a Wonderful Life, and it should become your next yearly holiday watch.
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The Premise Is the Perfect Blend of Absurd Horror and Family Fun
The plot of Gremlins starts with struggling inventor Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton), who visits a Chinatown antique shop looking for a Christmas gift for his son, Billy (Zach Galligan). There, he finds a cute, cuddly little creature called a Mogwai (voiced by Howie Mandel). Despite the owner’s protestations against selling it, the owner’s grandson does it behind his back. He warns Randall of three rules for caring for the Mogwai: keep it away from light, don’t get it wet, and above all, never feed it after midnight.
Of course, these rules are quickly (if accidentally) broken shortly after Billy receives the Mogwai for Christmas, which he affectionately dubs Gizmo. When water spills on Gizmo, he sprouts a group of rowdier Mogwai from his back. And when all of them eat after midnight, they transform into demonic gremlins intent on destruction. With its goofy, unserious horror premise tinged in gift-giving, family antics, ample Christmas imagery and music, Gremlins might just be the best horror and holiday hybrid ever.
‘Gremlins’ Is Unlike Any Christmas Movie Ever Made
Director Joe Dante is famously a huge fan of Looney Tunes, and he imbues that specific brand of comedy and gleeful violence into the cozy Christmas town of Kingston Falls (it’s no coincidence that part of the town’s set in the Universal backlot, Courthouse Square, was also used for It’s a Wonderful Life). Gizmo the Mogwai may be adorable and fluffy, but his gremlin offspring are nasty, malicious and intent on harming all who cross their path.
If you really examine the movie’s subtext, Gremlins is a sly satire of Reaganite ’80s idealism, as the gremlins lay to waste a picturesque American town. They could also be interpreted as manifestations of Christmas consumerism themselves, as their gluttony and greed wreak havoc on the holiday.
While the film is a fun, easy watch, it’s a bit more violent and crude than your average family Christmas movie. It features gremlins getting hacked to bloody pieces by Billy’s mom (Frances Lee McCain), a sick, extended joke from Billy’s girlfriend Kate (Phoebe Cates) about the Christmas-themed death of her father and an elderly woman getting cannonballed out of her home. Ultimately, Gremlins is a perfect combination of satire, slapstick and cartoon violence, made all the merrier with its Christmastime setting.
The Gremlin Puppetry Is Iconic and Impressive
Watching Gremlins, you might completely forget that Gizmo and his gremlin enemies are entirely the work of meticulous puppetry and animatronics courtesy of Chris Walas. A large number of Gizmo puppets of various sizes were created for use in different types of scenes. A large Gizmo face was created for close-up scenes conveying emotion, as the puppets weren’t suitable for those kinds of facial movements, and a separate, large Gizmo was created for the scene where the new mogwai sprout and multiply from his back.
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Balloons were employed to simulate the little furry mogwai eggs, and a balloon was also implemented in the scene where a gremlin explodes in the Peltzers’ microwave. And, of course, there’s all the evil gremlins, whose puppeteers worked underneath sets that were built up off the floor to operate them. In the end, this painstaking practical work pays off — puppetry and animatronics create tangible monsters that look and feel real to both the actors and the audience, creating something far more effective than CGI.
